Cleared Hacker Sees Unsure Future
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- A 30-year-old California man has gone abruptly from criminal hacker to innocent whistle-blower but he wonders if his name will ever really be cleared. In an extraordinary reversal approved by top Justice Department officials, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles asked a federal appeals court to strike down a conviction won last year against Bret McDanel. McDanel's crime was warning customers of an e-mail company he once worked for about a flaw that could let other people read their messages, the Los Angeles Times reported. His attempts to demonstrate how the flaw worked got him in trouble.
McDanel, 30, said he wished the about-face had come earlier. He spent 16 months behind bars before and during his trial. His fiancee left him, his two cats had to be boarded with his parents and his reputation was trashed. "I don't think my name can ever truly be cleared," he said. "If you type my name into Google, you will come up with tons of articles about what a bad person I am."
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- A 30-year-old California man has gone abruptly from criminal hacker to innocent whistle-blower but he wonders if his name will ever really be cleared. In an extraordinary reversal approved by top Justice Department officials, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles asked a federal appeals court to strike down a conviction won last year against Bret McDanel. McDanel's crime was warning customers of an e-mail company he once worked for about a flaw that could let other people read their messages, the Los Angeles Times reported. His attempts to demonstrate how the flaw worked got him in trouble.
McDanel, 30, said he wished the about-face had come earlier. He spent 16 months behind bars before and during his trial. His fiancee left him, his two cats had to be boarded with his parents and his reputation was trashed. "I don't think my name can ever truly be cleared," he said. "If you type my name into Google, you will come up with tons of articles about what a bad person I am."
Charles Mims
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